The Verge - All Posts

South Korean workers observe collapsed container cranes after Typhoon Maemi pounded the southern port city of Busan on September 13, 2003 in Busan, about 450km (281 miles) southeast of Seoul, South Korea. | Photo by Getty Images Ports around the world stand to suffer billions of dollars in losses if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, a new report finds. Extreme weather, flooding, and rising sea levels would all damage vital seaport infrastructure, disrupting global supply lines.Losses from storms and climate-related port disruptions could near $10 billion a year by 2050, according to the report, commissioned by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). By 2100, without action on climate change, those costs could balloon to more than $25 billion a year. For context, that last figure is more than the total operating profits for the entire global container shipping industry in a year.Many ports are already overwhelmed after the COVID-19 pandemic... Continue reading…

Image: Hulu In the week ahead of former Theranos COO Sunny Balwani’s fraud trial, which was set to begin today before being postponed due to a juror being exposed to someone with COVID, the Santa Clara County Superior Court was hard at work screening potential jurors from the pool of local citizens.This is a typical part of court cases meant to ensure that a jury’s makeup is representative of the larger community. But the process is a bit trickier with high-profile cases like those of Balwani and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, given the potential for jurors’ opinions to be influenced by information from outside of the trial; things like, say, a flashy 8-episode streaming miniseries based on a podcast by the same name.While the amount of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge People have vast, spiraling experiences on psychedelic drugs, often returning from a hallucinogenic trip full of new outlooks on their life or even changes to their personality. They describe the trips with vivid, emotional language — which might be able to tell researchers what parts of their brains are reacting to the drugs.In order to figure out how and why hallucinogenics trigger certain experiences, a research team used machine learning to pull common words and phrases out of people’s testimonials about their trips. Then, in a new study published Wednesday, the researchers linked those words to the parts of the brain impacted by the drugs.It’s a different approach to studying drugs and the brain: normally, researchers looking to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is testing a feature that will make it possible to transfer a specific profile to an entirely new account, potentially as a way to encourage streaming freeloaders to sign up for their own subscriptions, as first reported by Variety. As described in a post on Netflix’s site, this feature — and another that enables you to add sub-accounts for people you don’t live with — is currently being tested in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.Netflix notes that users can transfer profiles to new accounts, or the sub-accounts that subscribers will have to pay an additional fee for. This lets users retain their viewing history, My List, and recommendations when they complete the transfer to a new account. Netflix first rolled out user profiles in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just a few weeks after announcing its latest price hike, Netflix announced it’s cracking down on the widespread practice of password sharing between people who don’t live in the same household by prompting them to pay an extra fee for the privilege.In a blog post, Chengyi Long, director of product innovation, says, “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households — impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”During a test period, Netflix will try out its approach in three countries: Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. There, in addition to the ability to transfer viewing profiles into... Continue reading…

Image: Finji As a kid, I was obsessed with Nintendo’s official player’s guides. I loved poring over the maps, hints, tips, and information in them so that I could use what I learned the next time I sat down in front of the TV. I have a particular fondness for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask guides — without them, I would have never been able to find all of the pieces of heart or masks hidden in the games.Thanks to the internet, I don’t really need player’s guides anymore, as there’s now a helpful article or video for almost every conceivable puzzle or challenge. (I’m embarrassed by how many Elden Ring tutorials I’ve googled.) And in exploring the world of Tunic, a new game from a small team and Chicory: A Colorful Tale... Continue reading…

Volodymyr Zelenskyy once played Ukraine’s president in a comedy series. | Photo by Sergei Supinsky / AFP via Getty Images The comedy satire series Servant of the People, which stars former actor and current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is available once again on Netflix in the US, the streamer announced Wednesday. In the show, which was on Ukrainian television from 2015 to 2019 and first aired on Netflix from 2017 to 2021, Zelenskyy played a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president of Ukraine after a video of him complaining about corruption goes viral.The show ended production when Zelenskyy decided to run for president of Ukraine in 2019 as a member of the Servant of the People political party (he won in a landslide). Zelenskyy campaigned on promises of building a new Ukraine, telling supporters in his acceptance speech, “I will never fail... Continue reading…

The New York Times said the Wordle Archive’s use was “unauthorized.” | Photo by Mike Kemp / In Pictures via Getty Images The Wordle Archive, which let you play Wordles of days past, has been forced offline at the request of The New York Times, according to a report from Ars Technica. Navigating to the Wordle Archive yields a disappointing message: “Sadly, the New York Times has requested that the Wordle Archive be taken down.”It’s still unclear what went down legally between the NYT and the Wordle Archive, but a spokesperson for the news outlet vaguely told Ars Technica that the archive’s “usage was unauthorized, and we were in touch with them.”The Wordle Archive previously displayed a list of old playable puzzles that were great for when you finished your daily Wordle just a little too fast and were left wanting more. Luckily, our old friend the Web... Continue reading…

Image: Bandai Namco FromSoftware’s Elden Ring has been nothing short of a smash hit, hitting 12 million copies sold worldwide since its release last month. But like any pop culture success in 2022, Elden Ring isn’t going to stop at one great game: it’s going to be a franchise, with FromSoftware telling fans to “please look forward to more of ‘ELDEN RING’ as an IP (characters and other intellectual property) in hopes of expanding beyond the realm of games.”“Much effort was placed into creating ‘ELDEN RING’ so that we could exceed the expectations of our fans worldwide. In like manner, we will continue our efforts in expanding the brand beyond the game itself, and into everyone’s daily life,” commented Yasuo Miyakawa, the president and CEO of Bandai Namco,... Continue reading…

Here’s a resource a student might pull up. | Image: Google Imagine if your old trig worksheets stepped in to help you out when you were stumped on a question. That’s Practice Sets, the newest Google Classroom tool, in a nutshell.Google Classroom, for folks who went to school before the internet was everything, is a widely used gaggle of web tools that allows teachers to post assignments, students to submit them, and teachers to return them online. With Practice Sets, not only will teachers be able to send out problem sets, but they’ll be able to make those problem sets interactive.An algorithm will provide hints to students who seem stumped. It will automatically grade the sets as well. Shantanu Sinha, head of product efforts for Google Education, says the algorithm will recognize when... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Weeks ago, Ukraine-based influencer Kristina Korban’s TikTok was a steady stream of gym motivation and personal finance tips punctuated by trending audio. In bold title text, she told her followers to “STAY CONSISTENT” and “DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY!” Aside from one lighthearted reference to the escalating situation with Russia, Korban’s page stayed on message: “YOU CAN BE AN INVESTOR.”Then, on February 23rd, the facade of normalcy fell apart. In a video that’s been viewed more than 9 million times, the Kyiv-based influencer recorded herself from bed, describing explosions in the distance that rattled her home. “This might be the beginning of something serious,” she says.For weeks, TikTok users have watched Russian troops and military... Continue reading…

Start11 supports a lot of Windows 11 Start menu customization. | Image: Stardock If you’re like me and you’re disappointed by the taskbar in Windows 11, there are plenty of apps to bring back missing functionality. One of the most fully featured is Stardock’s Start11, and it’s being updated today (version 1.2 beta) to include support for ungrouping apps on the taskbar in Windows 11.Microsoft doesn’t currently support ungrouping app icons on the taskbar in Windows 11, nor small icons or even the ability to resize the taskbar. These key missing features are all supported in Start11, with multi-monitor support to independently define window grouping on secondary monitors. Image: Stardock Centered icons and Start button on the left. There’s even a new option so you can left-align the Start... Continue reading…

Slack’s upgraded iPad interface. | Image: Slack Slack is giving its iPad app a much needed upgrade that will see it inherit many features of its desktop version, the company has announced. The app is getting a new two-column layout that shows a list of available channels and messages on the left, and their contents on the right. The left-hand sidebar is also being updated, and the app is getting better support for accessibility features like Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader.None of these are particularly revolutionary features, but they’re welcome additions to an iPad app that can sometimes feel more like a giant iPhone app. Slack is marketing the update as serving the needs of newly emerging hybrid workplaces, which should hopefully make it easier to keep up with workplace... Continue reading…

For all of its open-world excess, Grand Theft Auto V is also a game about repetition: you go through missions multiple times, trying to finally complete that high-speed pursuit or violent shootout successfully. This can often mean reloading the same mission repeatedly, and — in previous iterations of the game — that time could add up quite a bit and become a frustrating nuisance. But after replaying the first few hours of the game’s new next-gen release, the thing that has struck me most is just how fast things move.GTAV is out now on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S (I’ve been playing the PS5 version), and it features the usual assortment of next-gen upgrades. That means support for 4K visuals, ray tracing, and 60fps gameplay,... Continue reading…

The last-gen iPad Air is down to $500 at Amazon The announcement of the latest iteration of the iPad Air at Apple’s Peek Performance event last week has resulted in price cuts for the last-gen model. Usually, the 2020 model of the iPad Air can only be found for $599.99, but Amazon currently has the 64GB model of this tablet in all colorways for $499.99. While the newer iPad Air comes with Apple’s M1 processor, the A14 Bionic chip in the 2020 model still provides more than enough power for a vast majority of applications. The iPad Air uses a 10.9-inch retina display with a resolution of 2360x1640, but for more details on the specs of the latest version of this tablet, feel free to read our review by Dan Seifert.It’s been a while since we showed off this deal from Amazon that drops... Continue reading…

Image: Disney Starting on March 16th, 2022, when you first sign in to your Disney Plus subscription, you’re going to be asked to select content ratings for all of the users in your family — a reflection of the network’s new parental controls. When you open the app, you’ll be asked if you want to change your content rating from TV-14, which is somewhat restricted to TV-MA (no restrictions). If you don’t choose, you will be automatically slotted into a TV-14 rating.(Why the new TV-MA rating on what was a very family-friendly service? Perhaps because it’s also bringing in a group of Marvel shows, such as Daredevil and Luke Cage — shows that do not fall into the category of “family-friendly.”)Here’s how the process works on a computer; you will see a... Continue reading…

Image: BMW In a few weeks, BMW plans on unveiling its latest electric vehicle, the i7 luxury sedan. Ahead of that, the German automaker is offering a few teaser images, some interesting specs, and — of course — confirmation that this EV will have an absolutely massive, entirely unnecessary kidney-shaped grille.To be fair, the grille is an indelible part of the automaker’s identity. It’s how you know a BMW is a BMW. So it stands to reason that the company would include it on its upcoming EVs, despite the vehicle lacking an engine under the hood in need of cooling.To be fair, the grille is an indelible part of the automaker’s identityBMW claims that the i7’s grille has been “completely reinterpreted to achieve a modern and distinct look.” For... Continue reading…

Universal Control links multiple Macs and iPads together under a single mouse and keyboard. | Image: Apple It’s been a good month for Mac desktop setup aficionados. Apple just released the Studio Display, its first vaguely affordable (as in not $6,000) new monitor in more than a decade. But there’s another new option that I’ve been testing that flips the entire idea of an external monitor on its head. Universal Control is now available in iOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3, and if you can make it work in your setup, you really ought to try it.If you haven’t heard of Universal Control, it basically lets you use your Mac’s keyboard and mouse or trackpad to control your iPad (or another Mac, though I haven’t been able to test that). Just nudge your cursor to the side of your Mac’s monitor, and it’ll jump on over to the iPad like it was another... Continue reading…

The new iPad Air is a blend of familiar features with predictable results Continue reading…

The Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching its first AI-powered camera for the Surface Hub 2. Businesses that have bought fully into Microsoft’s future-of-work vision with the Surface Hub will now be able to upgrade its camera capabilities. The new Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera supports automatic reframing, a wide field of view, and image correction features that will all improve meetings.“Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera reframes, adjusts lighting, and enables incredibly wide angles of view, all without any warping, distortions, or depth-of-field issues that might otherwise limit what is visible,” explains Steven Bathiche, corporate vice president of Windows and devices at Microsoft. “The team put tremendous work into tuning the experience to capture and frame... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft was one of the first companies to warn other businesses that the pandemic would forever change work habits. Two years later, Microsoft has embraced remote work both in its products and in practice with regard to how and where its employees get work done. Today it’s announcing changes to Microsoft Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, and even Surface hardware to improve the hybrid realities of remote and office work.As more businesses return to offices and contemplate a mix of remote and office work, Microsoft is updating Outlook to make it easier to see if colleagues are planning to attend meetings in person or not. A new Outlook RSVP feature will appear in public preview in the web version of Outlook in Q2 that allows meeting... Continue reading…

Instagram’s parental control features in action. | Image: Meta Instagram’s new parental controls, announced in December, are launching today in the US. The service’s head, Adam Mosseri, refers to them as the company’s “first set” of parental supervision tools, allowing parents and guardians to view and set limits on the amount of time their teens are spending on Instagram, get updates on which accounts they’re following and being followed by, and receive notifications when they report another user.The controls are being introduced after the Meta-owned social network came under fire for its impact on younger users. Leaked internal research from the company suggests that Instagram usage has detrimental effects on the mental health of its younger users, particularly teenage girls. Shortly after the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge On Sunday, one of the most trusted sources of Apple rumors revealed that we can expect four new iPhones later this year: two with 6.1-inch screen sizes, likely to be the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, and two with 6.7-inch screens, likely dubbed the iPhone 14 Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Four phones in total.The tweet made me gasp because of what’s missing. There’s nothing even close to the 5.4-inch screen size of my beloved iPhone Mini.I know, I know, many people prefer big screens, and the iPhone Mini wasn’t exactly a success according to supply chain reports.But that didn’t keep me and 11 other Verge staffers from buying one — and when I polled my colleagues this week, seven of us still agree that the rest of the world’s too-big... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is rolling out a new feature in its Docs that’s designed to make it easier to use its word processor to draft emails, the company has announced. It’s part of Google’s “smart canvas” initiative, which aims to seamlessly weave together the search giant’s productivity software like Meet, Docs, and Gmail.Much like Google Docs’s other smart canvas features, the email draft template is accessed with the @ symbol, before selecting “Email draft” from the context menu. You can then draft the email, including defining recipients, a subject line, and its body text. When it’s ready to send, click the Gmail icon on the left to open the email service. Image: Google Draft an email, then send it to Gmail with a click. ... Continue reading…

Image: YouTube / AI Addict Tesla has a complicated relationship with customers who pay to test the beta version of its “Full Sell Driving” software. Often, these people are diehard fans, keen to promote the company’s prowess and show off its new driver assist features. Sometimes, though, they overshare — posting videos that show exactly when and how Tesla’s software gets it wrong.When the person sharing these clips also works for Tesla, things are even more complicated. John Bernal, a former Tesla employee who reviewed the company’s FSD Beta software on his YouTube channel AI Addict says he was fired by the company last month after posting a video that showed his Tesla hitting a bollard.Bernal says he was told his YouTube channel was a “conflict of interest”As... Continue reading…

Photo by Tayfun CoÅkun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Part of the Apple Park campus in Cupertino was evacuated after first responders discovered an envelope containing a white powder substance, NBC Bay Area reports. The Santa Clara County Fire Department’s incident report shows there was a fire alarm and hazmat response at Apple’s headquarters just after noon local time.Emergency personnel since have determined that the situation is under control, and employees apparently have been allowed to go back inside, according to the publication. It’s unclear what the substance may have been.Apple told employees at Apple Park that “authorities concluded that there was no presence of hazardous materials,” according to an email obtained later in the day by The Verge. The email says that operations... Continue reading…

Spotify’s name will be featured on FC Barcelona’s jerseys for the next four seasons. | Image by FC Barcelona/Spotify Camp Nou, one of the most iconic soccer stadiums in the world, is being rebranded as Spotify Camp Nou as part of a sponsorship agreement with Spanish soccer club FC Barcelona that gives Spotify naming rights to the stadium. Spotify’s name will also appear on the jerseys of both the men’s and women’s teams for the next four seasons starting in the 2022/23 season.The deal still has to get ratified by FC Barcelona’s Extraordinary Delegate Members Assembly in a vote that will take place on April 3rd. It likely won’t have much trouble passing, however, as FC Barcelona is in a huge amount of debt and sought to sell a stake in its media production division last year.The deal is reportedly worth $310 million. It could have been worth more,... Continue reading…

These people seem really thrilled about their websites. | Image: Google Google Domains, the company’s domain registration service, is losing the beta tag after first launching more than seven years ago, Google announced Tuesday. The service is now generally available in 26 countries, and the company says it already has “millions of active registrations.”If you register with Google Domains, you can pick from more than 300 different domain endings, have access to “high performance DNS” (Google says it’s the same infrastructure it uses for itself), “around-the-clock customer support from real people,” and more. The company is also offering a 20 percent discount off “any single domain registration or transfer-in to Google Domains” for new and returning users with the code DOMAINS20.However, if you register a... Continue reading…

He provided some details, but didn’t talk specific features. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta would add NFTs to Instagram, according to Engadget and The Daily Beast. While he didn't describe exactly what that would look like, he said during a session at South By Southwest that "over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment."There have been rumblings that this was coming. Last year, Instagram lead Adam Mosseri said the team was "actively exploring NFTs" but didn't have any actual announcements. In January, we heard a report that teams at Facebook and Instagram were working on NFT integrations. The report mentioned that there was progress on features to let you use an NFT as a profile and mint NFTs on the... Continue reading…

Super73 Super73, the electric mobility company popular with YouTubers and celebrities, introduced its first electric motorcycle — though it’s just a concept for now. The company also unveiled a host of other battery-powered vehicles, including an e-bike for kids, in a dramatic expansion of its product lineup.The Super73 C1X Concept cuts a slimmer profile than most motorcycles, with 15-inch wheels and a 31-inch seat height. The 51-inch wheelbase is significantly shorter than other electric motorcycles, like Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire (58.7 inches) and Zero’s SR/F (57.1 inches). It also isn’t as fast as most two-wheelers on the road, gas or electric, with a top speed of 75mph. That still makes it one of the fastest vehicles to come out of the... Continue reading…

A discount brings the price from $20 a month to $0 a month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon is introducing a new discount to its Fios Forward plans, which should let low-income customers get fiber internet for free when combined with discounts through the federal Affordable Connectivity Program. The free tier, which is normally $40 a month, includes 300Mbps speeds as well as a $10 discount on a Verizon Unlimited Wireless plan. Customers who need more bandwidth (and are able to pay more) can get a gigabit connection for $50 a month with the ACP discount, which also includes more benefits and a larger cell plan discount.Verizon says Fios Forward is available to people who qualify for the government’s Lifeline program. The 200Mbps tier used to cost $20 a month, according to a Wayback Machine archive from November, so... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In the days since The Walt Disney Company first came under fire for giving money to the politicians behind Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, CEO Bob Chapek has apologized for initially having nothing to say, and he subsequently announced the corporation’s plans to “pause” its political donations in Florida for an undetermined amount of time. In the eyes of many of Disney’s queer employees, those steps are simply not enough, and now they’re taking action to make that point as clear as they can to the company’s leadership.In response to Disney’s actions and Chapek’s emails, a number of Disney employees are now planning to stage a week of virtual 15-minutes walkouts beginning this afternoon, culminating in a day-long walkout on March 22nd.... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Phones have become so much a part of our daily lives that it can be immediately traumatic if you suddenly can’t find your phone — whether you’ve left it in a cab, accidentally dropped it out of your pocket, or lost it under your bed. If you have an Android phone, you can use the Find My Device feature to (hopefully) locate your phone.Find My Device depends on two things being enabled: the feature itself (of course) and Google’s Location services. In addition, the phone also has to be turned on and signed in to a Google account.The Find My Device feature comes as part of the standard OS on Pixels and several other Android phones and is usually turned on by default. Be aware that some Android models may offer a different app; for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Within the last year, Microsoft not only revealed a new generation of Windows, it fully dived in by launching Windows 11 last fall, and now it’s scheduled another preview event to discuss the “exciting future” of “Hybrid Work, Powered by Windows.” Set to take place on April 5th at 11AM ET, it will feature Windows exec Panos Panay showing off Microsoft’s security, productivity, and management features, both in the client and the cloud. Image: Microsoft A Microsoft Teams interface demo showing off a remote meeting. What exactly does that include? The event page doesn’t say much and Microsoft hasn’t openly discussed the event, but we’ve seen plenty of clues about the kind of hybrid work solutions and security... Continue reading…

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel announced new rules for foreign broadcasting in the US. | Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission rolled out new rules requiring broadcasters to disclose when foreign governments lease time on their airwaves, an issue that has become more urgent following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“In light of recent events, this effort — which is all about transparency — has taken on new importance,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement Tuesday. “It is essential that audiences know when a broadcast station has been compensated to air content coming from a foreign government.”While foreign governments can purchase airwave time, they cannot directly hold a broadcasting license. Tuesday’s rules force broadcasters to provide an on-air disclosure whenever a foreign government, foreign... Continue reading…

Astra’s LV0009 rocket ahead of today’s flight from Alaska. | Image: Astra Space startup Astra successfully returned to launch today, a little more than a month after its last launch failed mid-flight. Taking off from Kodiak, Alaska, Astra’s LV0009 rocket deployed the satellites it was carrying into orbit for three commercial companies, marking the company’s first successful commercial mission.There was a brief moment during the flight, however, where it seemed like today’s mission might have been a failure. Soon after reaching orbit, the vehicle was supposed to deploy the satellites it was carrying (except for one that was to remain attached to the rocket). However, Astra did not immediately receive confirmation that the payloads had deployed and ended its livestream of the flight before getting word about... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge In the latest communications setback to hit the Russian military, the Security Service of Ukraine (abbreviated as SBU) claims to have captured a hacker who was helping to provide communications services for Russian troops inside Ukrainian territory, VICE reports.The SBU shared details in a tweet and Telegram message posted at around 10AM local time (4AM ET), including pictures alleged to show the hacker and their communications system, though the reports have not been independently confirmed.According to the SBU’s Telegram post, the hacker was helping to route calls from within Russia to the mobile phones of Russian troops in Ukraine, and also sending text messages to Ukrainian security officers and civil servants proposing they... Continue reading…

Image: Polk How small can a soundbar get while still offering Dolby Atmos? According to Polk, the answer is 14.5 inches. That’s the width of the company’s new $499 MagniFi Mini AX, which supports both Atmos and DTS:X. In addition to the very compact soundbar, Polk is also including a wireless subwoofer for that price.The Sonos Beam — which itself is what I’d consider a small-ish soundbar — measures 25.63 inches wide. The MagniFi Mini AX manages to hack over 10 inches off of that, and frankly its dimensions and top-panel controls make it look more like a Bluetooth speaker than home theater gear. On the front is an OLED ticker for relaying key information like sound adjustments. Image: Polk Most soundbars dwarf an iPhone in... Continue reading…

Image: Bandai Namco Elden Ring is just so massive and its bosses are so tough that the average player will probably take over 60 hours to beat it. But speedrunners, assisted by some traditional speedrunning tricks and the game’s own open design, have somehow managed to beat the sprawling game in under 30 minutes.For a speedrunning enthusiast, the first days of a game’s release are extremely exciting. New techniques and optimizations are constantly being discovered, as boss behaviors and the runner’s own luck work with or against them, making almost every run a possible world record. While every runner is ostensibly competing against the clock, two runners have emerged in the Elden Ring speed community, each racing to post lower and lower times.Lil Aggy is... Continue reading…

Fixing a bricked Apple Watch used to require a mail-in repair. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s latest watchOS update, 8.5, now has a recovery mode that can help you restore your Apple Watch if it gets stuck on the dreaded red exclamation point screen (via 9to5Mac). The update is laid out in a support article that was updated on Monday — while the previous version of the article just recommended trying to reboot the watch, then setting up a mail-in repair with Apple support, it now describes the process of recovering your Watch at home.Apple’s article says that you’ll need an iPhone running iOS 15.4 to go through the steps. If your Watch is showing an animation of a phone and a watch being brought together, or a red exclamation point, the process to fix it is relatively simple:

Image: Microsoft Microsoft appears to be testing a new type of ad inside File Explorer on Windows 11. Microsoft MVP and Twitter user Florian Beaubois discovered an ad in the latest test build of Windows 11, prompting users to check out the Microsoft Editor. While the ads might have appeared for some Windows 11 users, Microsoft says it was a mistake.“This was an experimental banner that was not intended to be published externally and was turned off,” says Brandon LeBlanc, senior program manager for Windows, in a statement to The Verge.

Image: Microsoft Microsoft says it has improved the performance of its Xbox Cloud Gaming service on the iPhone and iPad. The cloud game streaming service, formerly known as xCloud, first launched fully on iOS and iPadOS nearly a year ago, accessible from the Safari web browser. While the web browser version isn’t as fully featured as a dedicated app, Microsoft is now improving its performance for Apple’s mobile devices despite being unable to launch a standalone xCloud app.Improvements include optimized video output on iOS devices and optimized network data transmission to speed up the responsiveness of Xbox Cloud Gaming. “You asked for a better iOS experience, and as a result, we have brought major performance improvements to all supported iPhone and... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Samsung is bringing some of the camera features that come with the flagship Galaxy S22 to older devices, the company announced on its site. The One UI 4.1 update will extend to a wide range of phones, including the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S21, Galaxy S10, Note 20, and a portion of the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip families.The features won’t trickle down to all devicesThe company details some of the features it’s handing down to older devices in a post on its Korean community forum (via Android Police). Unfortunately, not all devices will support every feature listed here, with the majority of features landing on previous-gen devices, like the Galaxy S21, Z Fold 3, and Z Flip 3.If your device supports the update, it could introduce a number of... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service didn’t stick the landing, and it’s been a rough ride since. But today, at the Google for Games Developer Summit, it feels like Stadia might be moving in a promising direction — one that gives both gamers and game developers a reason to pay attention. And the magic word is “free.” Free demos, free trials, free for developers to offer, and hopefully free of the friction that made Stadia a difficult investment to start.I want to start off with something I wrote last February, when I explained how Google had drastically reduced its Stadia ambitions from what was effectively “become a game company” to “offer a white-label service to game publishers” instead. I wrote:

Netflix Former President Barack Obama is the surprise narrator of the upcoming Netflix documentary Our Great National Parks, a five-part series looking at wildlife around the world. The series was announced last February as part of a slate of programming that Barack and Michelle Obama are producing for Netflix via their Higher Ground Productions company — although the announcement didn’t mention that the former president would serve as host and narrator.“A fish that can walk. Surfing hippos that want to catch the waves. Species found nowhere else on earth,” Obama says in the trailer for Our Great National Parks. “When humanity started to protect these wild places, we did not realize how important they would become: They’re a haven for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge You’re sitting in your office and decide to find out when your next appointment is. You pick up your phone and murmur quietly, “OK Google, when’s my next appointment?” And then, loud enough to be heard over the entire room, your Google Assistant announces, “Next up, you have an appointment with your urologist on September 3rd at 9AM.”You don’t have to hide under your desk anymore. Google has now made it possible to silence all Google Assistant voice output and only show the answers to your questions on your phone. Here’s how to set it up.First, you need to get to your Google Assistant settings. You can do it one of two ways:

David Mamet, at the Rome Film Festival in 2016. | Photo by Ernesto Ruscio / Getty Images David Mamet is known for plays like Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow, films like The Spanish Prisoner and Heist, books like On Directing Film and The Wicked Son, and as of last week, a short story about a lost airplane pilot filed as a legal brief supporting social media regulation in Texas.Mamet’s amicus brief is titled “Lessons from Aerial Navigation,” and as it’s two pages long, you should really just go read it. Here’s a sample of the prose:

“I want to be the new mascot for The Verge.” Rifftrax: The Game is a new party game that’s all about creating the most crowd-pleasing text-to-voice dub to overlay B-movie footage. It’s launching for the current and previous generation Xbox and PlayStation consoles, Nintendo Switch, and on Steam (for PC and macOS) for $9.99 on May 5th. This game was made in collaboration with RiffTrax, a group of expert B-movie commentators consisting of former Mystery Science Theater 3000 stars Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy.It was developed by Wide Right Interactive, and similar to its previous game, What The Dub?!, the goal is to create the most ridiculous and clever dubs for each clip so that other players can vote on which they like best. A big part of the fun is players vote... Continue reading…

Marvel Studios Unlike her fellow Jersey teens who insist that superheroes aren’t cool, Kamala Khan, the heroine of Marvel’s upcoming Ms. Marvel series, thinks capes are the flyest thing in the world. Naturally, she wants to become one of them herself, and in Ms. Marvel’s first trailer, the young girl’s wish starts to come true.From series creator Bisha K. Ali, Ms. Marvel tells the story of how Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), a diehard Carol Danvers stan, first discovers her own burgeoning superpowers and starts putting them to good use as supervillainy begins to take root in Jersey City. Similar to her comics counterpart, the MCU’s Kamala doesn’t hide the fact that she’s something of a fanfiction-writing nerd, something that few of her peers really... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Howdy, team! I’m here, on a Tuesday. And what a day to have a platform, because now I can tell you to go watch / listen to the premiere of MUNA’s new song at 11:45AM ET. May we sob together. (The teaser made the music sound somewhat upbeat, but you really never know.)EXCLUSIVE: Big $$$ in virtual podcast eventsIn-person podcast tours have shown that people are willing to pay for something beyond a pre-recorded episode. But virtual versions of those shows? In this climate of Zoom fatigue? Oh yeah, baby. In fact, they’re booming.Moment House has been live-streaming podcast recordings, called “Moments,” since March 2021, and I’m told that the company has sold 140,000 tickets over the course of the 56 that it’s hosted since then. The... Continue reading…